Something Cinderellaish
by Smex Lemur
Summary: Naruto lives with his two stepsisters and his stepmother. His boring, bullied and sucky life changes when he meets the popular Sasuke… SasuNaru. M for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: Only going to say this once: No, I don't own Naruto. Or else I wouldn't be writing fanfiction _

**A/N:** Hi! I hope you enjoy this fanfic of mine- I really hope you do. Yes, I know that I have a lot of others… but this one wouldn't leave my head, so I had to write it. 

This is something Cinderellaish- meaning it is based on it, but not entirely the same (well… duh, since it also includes Naruto characters -smacks herself- ). 

I don't know much about American/Japanese high schools, so I'm just going to base this on how my own high school worked (Dutch) and try to keep it as Japanese as possible (I've read several high school fics, but that doesn't mean I know everything about it, so please go easy on me xD) 

  
**WARNING**: Contains slash, that means BoyxBoy romance. If you don't like it, don't read it. 

**Title: **Something Cindarellaish

**Rating: **R for later chapters

**Couples: **Mostly SasuNaru, might throw in some others too… don't know yet!

**Summary: **Naruto lives with his two stepsisters and his stepmother. His boring, bullied and sucky life changes when he meets the popular Sasuke… 

**Chapter 1**

"Naruto, get up and make us breakfast!"

The young blonde, with eyes as blue as the ocean and strange whisker marks on his cheeks, woke up to an annoying pounding on his door. He grumbled and tried to shut the sound out, but it didn't work. It only made it worse, actually, as a young pink-haired girl entered the room and started to shake him roughly in order to wake him up.

"Oi! Make breakfast, idiot!" The voice of her made his head hurt, but opened his eyes nonetheless and decided it was just best to respond to her.

"Alright, I'm up," he said, making sure he shot her a glare behind her back. For a moment, he was afraid she saw it, but as she made her way through the messy room and exited it, he wasn't afraid of her anymore and also stuck his tongue out.

He quickly put on a pair of pants and a clean, orange (his favourite colour) shirt to wear that day. After he had dressed himself (and brushed his teeth of course!), he quickly took his cellphone and stuffed it in his pocket.

Not that he got called every day- actually, the only person who ever called him was his stepmother who was so 'nice' to take him in, even after his real father had died a couple of years ago, one year after he had married her. Naruto was starting to think he had simply killed himself.

But, aside from his stepmother, he also got text messages from a certain… someone.

He didn't know anything about him. Yes, him. He was gay- which he had known for some time now. Not that it didn't scare him at first, but he figured that love is love, whether it's being in love with someone from the same gender or not- it didn't matter anymore to him. But he hadn't told anyone yet, since he didn't want them to have another reason to hate and bully him. He wanted to keep it a secret- especially for his stepsisters- not that he was ashamed of it or anything, but he figured his life was complicated enough as it is.

Besides, he didn't have anything to be embarrassed about, since his stepsisters were scary enough to turn any man gay. He could just blame them when they would find out.

Besides his stepmother, he also had two stepsisters who were just as mean, cruel, evil, sc- well, you get the picture. One of them we've already met- Sakura, the pink-haired monster, with a big forehead and amazing green eyes. When they first came to live with Naruto and his dad, Naruto thought he might have a crush on her. But gradually it disappeared and he found out he preferred men.

The other one was Ino. She had long, blond hair and was just as bossy and annoying as Sakura was. They thought that he was their servant (or slave), as they always made sure that he did everything around the house so that they could stuff themselves with food he made for them, go swimming in the pool he cleaned for them (but wasn't allowed to swim in it himself), clip their toenails, brush their- well, again, you get the idea.

Anyway, as I was saying- he got text messages from a certain someone who called himself 'Sharingan'. He didn't know anything else, except that they went to the same school together, that they were both males, that they were both gay and that he was only a year older.

The only things they talked about it were their feelings, emotions, all that crap.

Sharingan didn't know his real name either, naturally. He knew him by the name of 'Kyuubi', and who could blame him for not telling him? I mean, it was rather logical- Naruto was one of the least popular people there. He only had a few friends and he was _certain _that they didn't like men the way he liked them. Not that they ever talked about stuff like that, but still. And what if the guy he liked hated him- Uzumaki Naruto, the person who gets bullied around by two girls and works his ass off for them? No, he couldn't bare that.

Not that he was focused on creating an image or something, but it was nice to not be hated _entirely_.

How they met wasn't a very big deal. Naruto was hardly ever allowed to use Sakura's laptop (only when they had to make a report), but one day Ino and Sakura and his stepmother would be away for the whole day and he thought that he could finally take a look in one of the chatrooms that she was always talking in. He created a username and went in- there, he met Sharingan. They started talking to each other and decided to give their numbers to each other so they could continue their chat.

Well, one thing led to another and Naruto could swear that he was feeling something for someone he didn't even know. Every time he received a message, his heart skipped a beat and Sharingan said the same went for him. Which made Naruto blush heavily. When he talked to the other boy, he felt happy. Something he hadn't felt for a long time- at least, not after his father's death.

His death hadn't been a real surprise. He died from a disease and left his only son alone with his second wife and stepdaughters. Naruto at first didn't complain- his stepmother had been nice to him before, so he was sure that she would show a lot of compassion towards the boy. Unfortunately, that wasn't true- she treated him like he was some sort of rodent.

In his house, he felt like an unwelcome guest. A dog, a parasite, or even lower than that. He didn't feel at home at all. He lived there, but it wasn't his home.

Actually, the only place where he felt really at home, was the house they previously had lived in. It kept a lot of memories of him and his father- him and his father playing in the backyard together, building a tree-house together (even though it never worked out) and other memories he was fond of, even though it hurt quite a bit remembering them. But still, it was better than the new house they were living in, which was cold and silent and didn't feel like _home. _

Of course, it couldn't be helped. His father had left them all of his assets, including the tons of money he had, which his stepmother was rather eager to get her hands on of course. She didn't really seem to care about his father's death. She had cried briefly, but that was it- she didn't keep any photographs of him and her together and she treated Naruto as if he was a stray dog- as if he wasn't the son of her late husband at all.

Anyway, so they moved to Konoha, which also meant a new start. Which meant that he had to meet new people. Which meant that he had to make a good impression.

However, it didn't turn out the way he had planned it.

His stepsisters had both mentioned how he was a complete and utter moron and actually said that he cleaned their toilets with his own toothbrush- of course, that ruined his chances of becoming the cool, silent guy completely. It wasn't that people so much believed them immediately, but the thought still lingered at the back of their minds and they slowly began to torture him, the way his stepsisters tortured him.

So he decided to become the next best thing- the loud, obnoxious prankster. And it worked- everybody found him annoying and acknowledged his existence and gave him attention. It was exactly what he wanted. It was negative attention, but attention nonetheless.

Of course, it wasn't who he really was. He remembered saying to Sharingan something about it and Sharingan understood him completely.

'_It feels as if my real self is slowly drowning inside the person I play, as if the real me is slowly disappearing and nobody notices it. I hate being this way, but what else am I supposed to do? I know my true self isn't enough.' _

Sharingan had replied rather surprisingly, something that had made the blonde blush (not that it was uncommon for him to blush whenever Sharingan said something).

_'I know what you mean, I feel like that too. But if it is any consolation- I think the real you is perfect.' _

It had surprised him slightly- the other boy never really said things like that to him. Usually his replies were quite cool and cold, as if he never really wanted to show any emotions. Naruto had once asked him about this and Sharingan merely told him that he was right about that, but that he was trying to be a bit more warmer when 'talking' to him.

Anyway, back to the story.

Naruto walked slowly down the stairs, eyes looking to the grounds and thinking about _him. _He smiled to himself as he started to prepare breakfast, not really paying attention to his two quarrelling sisters. Oh, how he wanted them to shut up- they were disturbing his thoughts. Ino had thrown a plate against the wall, as if it were nothing and Naruto knew that it was his duty to clean it up. However, he listened to their conversation briefly, before cleaning up the pieces.

"-Sasuke-kun is mine, forehead!" Ino yelled at the top of her longs.

"Sasuke-kun doesn't even know you exist, Ino-pig!" Sakura yelled back. Okay, Naruto knew the topic was about Sasuke-bastard- well, not really a bastard, but he was the most popular guy in school, though Naruto sometimes thought he didn't really want it. Okay, so he was a bastard.

Anyway, he wasn't really important right now.

His stepsisters had finally noticed how Naruto had entered the kitchen and glared at him, temporarily forgetting their argument. It was like this practically every morning- actually, the thing they spent most their money on, were new plates. They blinked once. Twice. Before a sly smirk came and Naruto simply knew he was their new target.

"So, Naru-_chan," _ Sakura said, saying the last word a bit louder to simply provoke him. He wasn't going to let her. "How are you going to school today? I know that mom didn't want you to take that car of yours anymore, so…" Naruto gave her a small glare, doing his best to ignore her. "And it's pretty far away…" she looked at him, waiting for a response. It wasn't too hard to get a response out of Naruto, but it still was rather funny. And if he did explode on them and their mother would hear- oh, that would be even better. He wouldn't be allowed to watch television for a month or so- or perhaps had to go on a 'soup only'-diet. Sakura and Ino apparently were thinking the same thing (Naruto just figured it was because they each lacked the capacity to think for themselves) as their eyes starting to shine weirdly.

"If you're a nice boy, we could give you a ride to school…" Ino said, smirking. "How about you clean our rooms for two months and do our homework?" Naruto merely shot daggers at them, before replying. He tried to hold himself back, as it would only cause more trouble, but it was hard.

"No, I'll walk," he said, ignoring their glares, and threw some pancakes on Sakura's and Ino's (new) plates.

"Are you an idiot?" Sakura asked him and looked rather annoyed that he didn't respond. "Oh wait, I already know that answer," she quickly continued, grinning at Ino who snickered. Naruto, however, didn't even give them a look at all. He already tuned out everything they said and, while quickly drinking a glass of milk, grabbed his bag and walked to school. Sakura and Ino just shrugged- they would get him later.

-----

It was just another ordinary day at Konoha High. The sun was burning brightly, though there was a chilly wind, the classroom was filled with cheerful people waiting patiently for Kakashi-sensei to show up (though, as usual, he was late), and once again they glanced at the boy who suddenly stormed into class. He looked around to see if Kakashi had already arrived and was relieved to find out that he wasn't around. He allowed himself to relax and walked to the back of the class, ignoring the whispers he got, and sat next to one of the few friends he had.

"Good morning!" He said, the usual grin on his face. Kiba certainly was an odd person, but a very nice one and a loyal friend. Naruto always thought that the boy looked a bit like a dog.

"Good morning to you too," Naruto grumbled, taking out his math books. Kiba, of course, noticed the unusual sad face of his friend.

"Something happened to you? Did those bit-"

"Good morning class!" Kiba was interrupted (which was a good thing as well) by the cheerful greeting of Kakashi, who raised two fingers as a greeting. He looked happily at his class who mumbled a small 'good morning' back, before settling himself behind his desk and grabbing his own math book, which surprised the class slightly. The man almost never took out the math book.

Math always went rather slowly- especially since Naruto never quite knew what to do. Sure, Kakashi gave them assignments, but he never explained anything to them and when you went to his desk to ask him, the only thing he'd say was 'It's all in the book'. He'd continue reading his perverted book after that (Naruto thought it was called 'Come, Come Paradise', written by his neighbour, but he couldn't be sure).

When the bell rang, Naruto slowly got up and packed his bags. Kiba literally was skipping to the next (PE, it was his favourite) and looked like a little puppy when he did so. Right when he passed his perverted teacher's desk, Kakashi stopped him and gestured that he should stand by his desk.

"Math is not your strongest subject, is it?" He said, grinning slightly. At least, he thought he was grinning as the turtleneck sweater he was wearing covered half of his face. Naruto just glared at him.

"Well, if you would _explain _things and not always be _late _then I might be a little bit better at it, yes," Naruto replied. Kakashi merely chuckled at the insult.

"Well, isn't that perfect?" He said, clasping his hands together. "Because you're going to be tutored from now on! Every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday you'll spent time on math right after class with your new tutor. He's one class higher than you are. Be at classroom 104 at three P.M. for your first hour with him, you can get to know each other too!"

"What!" Naruto said, throwing his hands in the air. "But Kakashi-sensei, I don't want to! What's the meaning of this? My grades are good enough to pass! At least my first three grades were!" Kakashi nodded, shuffling some papers around, until he had a list with all of Naruto's grades and showed it to him.

"Ah yes, but your last two weren't which means that if you keep this up, you'll fail. And you don't want to go to summer school, now do you?" Naruto glared at him. Kakashi stared, waiting for a response. Naruto kept glaring. "Well, ehm, yes," Kakashi said, feeling the uncomfortable silence. "I think you should be going to your next class, right? Go on, scoot! And be on time for your lesson this afternoon!" The blonde muttered something incomprehensible, before walking out of the room and slamming the door. Hard.

----

The day went by in a blur. Naruto honestly didn't know what he preferred- school, where practically everybody hated or ignored him, or his house where he had to do everything his stepsisters and stepmother told him to.

Actually, his life sucked, now that he thought about it.

At lunchtime, he bumped into one of the 'cool' kids, Hyuuga Neji. Rich, powerful and handsome- the girls practically swooned at his feet. He was in the same grade as Naruto was and had several classes together with him.

Naruto was about to apologise, but before he could, Neji had already walked away and sat with his other friends, including Uchiha Sasuke. He recognised several others who were present there- all rich and handsome. They were all smart and good at sports- it seemed as though they were too perfect to be true. There were several girls sitting at their table as well, including his stepsisters who were glaring at him and saw that he had the nerve to even _touch _one of their… species.

They'd make sure to tell some sort of lie to their mother in order to get him into trouble.

Surprisingly enough, someone addressed him soon after. He was busy in the classroom where they had art lessons and was about to leave until he was stopped by a familiar black-haired, grey-eyed boy. _I'm going to die, _the blonde thought.

"Naruto, right?" He merely said.

"Uh, yeah, and you're Neji?" He asked hesitantly. He knew his name of course, but he asked it to- wait, why did he ask it? Probably to keep the conversation going. Neji nodded slowly. Okay, so he was a man of few words- that was alright. After all, Naruto didn't want a long speech right before his dea-

"I'm sorry I bumped into you during lunchtime." _What? _ The blonde was stunned for a moment, before regaining his speech.

"Oh, right," he said. "Ah, it's ok." Neji nodded and walked away, leaving a confused Naruto behind. Why was he being so nice?

Not that Neji ever treated him badly or anything, no- he was actually one of the people who simply ignored him (actually, he ignored everyone if they didn't interest him). But now he actually came up to him by himself and apologised. The great Hyuuga Neji, apologising! Naruto wasn't sure how to react.

A small beep could be heard, which came from Naruto's pocket. As he quickly took it out, he hoped with all his heart that it was Sharingan and not his stepmother.

'_School is boring today, isn't? I wish I could see you, that would make my day a bit more interesting.'_

Naruto grinned widely at it, before replying with:

_'A bit more? Certainly it would make it a whole lot more interesting!'_

It didn't take long before Sharingan replied, the familiar beeping sound could be heard loudly as Naruto was taking a book out of his locker. He glanced around to see if anyone had a phone in his hands, but he saw no one. Needless to say, he was rather curious about who exactly was sending him these messages, these things that made him blush so furiously when he read them. The messages that he could read over and over again, with a heart that would beat annoyingly fast in his throat.

_'Well, it depends on what we would do… but yes, I agree that it would be a lot more interesting! Well, I'll speak to you this afternoon.'_

-----

It was three P.M. and he was standing in front of classroom 104, just like Kakashi had told him to. He turned the doorknob hesitantly and stepped in. He quickly scanned the classroom, before noticing the black-haired boy. He had pale skin and black, cold eyes, his hands folded on one of the desks waiting patiently for his student. He was a total God of Sex.

Uchiha Sasuke.

Naruto blinked once. He was seriously considering if he should run away fast- but he didn't really know if that would solve anything. He thought about the options- summer school, or getting tutored by Sasuke. He honestly didn't know and-

"Are you going to stand there all day, idiot?" Sasuke said, interrupting Naruto's train of thoughts.

"Hey bastard! Don't call me an idiot!" Naruto yelled, pointing his finger at the older boy accusingly before sitting down. Sasuke simply shrugged, before he smirked at the blonde.

"Well, aren't you in need of getting tutored? I'd say you're an idiot," he said and watched amusedly as the other boy glared at him, trying to control his temper.

"Let's just get this over with, bastard," Naruto said, and opened his book. Sasuke agreed with him and both were thinking the exact same thing.

_This is going to be a long tutoring session._

-----

A/N: Well, tell me what you think! xD


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Whoa, I got a lot of reviews for this! -surprised-

Some review replies: 

Trekiael: Ah yes, it is a bit overused isn't it? Well, to be honest, I couldn't really find anything else that would give them some sort of contact… I needed to give them something so that they could meet each other, etc. and this was the only thing I could come up with. Other than that, thank you very much for reviewing! An honest critic is what I need, so I hope you will continue giving me some pointers xD

Shannigan: Eek, was it the name or the summary? I'm really bad at both! I'm glad you clicked though, thanks! XD

Remedy for Chaos: Thank you! I'll try to make longer chapters as I go!

Suzuran: Hm, no idea? I like the pairing NejiNaru too, so I'll be putting that in a bit (a little competition for Sasuke, eh? ) , but I'm leaving Gaara out of it. Do you mind looking it up? I always like reading Highschool fanfics xD if you don't want to, that's ok too, but then I can also check to see if it's the same and change it o.o I don't want to be one of those plagiarism people. I didn't mean to make it the same as another one, I just came up with this as I saw 'A Cinderella Story' (I had to watch it with my nieces! I swear! XD) and figured I could do something with that storyline, though I am making it different from that as well, but it still has the basic plot. Anyway, thanks for mentioning it!

To all the rest of you who have reviewed: THANK YOU! I really appreciate it and I hope you will continue reading and reviewing!

**Chapter 2 **

After what seemed like hours, the lesson from the 'look-at-me-I'm-too-sexy-for-words-Uchiha' was finally over and Naruto could go home. Not that he was looking forward to it, but then again, he never had anything to look forward to- yes, it does sound pathetic.

"We could study at either my place or your place next time," Sasuke said, putting his book in his bag and glancing at the other boy. He had never actually looked around twice at the blonde, though he had noticed him walking around the hallway quite often. He also knew that he was getting himself into trouble all the time. Sasuke had always regarded him as an annoying, hyperactive and cheerful guy- but now that he looked at him closer, he saw something else in his eyes. The same eyes that he had- the lonely kind.

He was reluctant to acknowledge this of course- he was the type who would be quiet, act depressed and who would appear to be brooding constantly. However, this guy was just… always grinning and smiling. Always loud and obnoxious, but nonetheless cheerful.

Sasuke wondered how he managed to keep that up. And how come he wasn't able to?

"Why?" Naruto asked nervously. He didn't want the other boy at his house- _they _would be breathing down their necks the entire time and would probably just make fun of Naruto. They would call him a retard and an idiot (at this point, Naruto had forgotten briefly about Sasuke calling him an idiot constantly) and Sasuke would just bully him and then even Kiba would hate him and then-

"Because I don't like being at school longer than I have to, so let's just study and your place next time," he replied, interrupting Naruto's train of thoughts. He opened the door as he walked away from the classroom, followed by Naruto who wanted to talk the stupid idea out of the Uchiha's head.

"Wait, my place? Why don't we go to yours?"

"Because, idiot, my stupid brother is having a party Thursday and I don't want to be there when it happens," Sasuke replied coolly.

"Don't call me an idiot, bastard! And we can just-"

"Look," Sasuke interrupted him. "Let's just go to your place, or else I'll just tell Kakashi-sensei that you don't want to study, got it?" Naruto nodded reluctantly as they exited the school and each went their own way. For a moment, Naruto watched the other boy walking to his black car, before turning away from him and walking towards his house.

"Oi, idiot!" Sasuke called after him. He apparently had noticed that the blonde had to walk to his house.

"Don't call me an idiot, bastard!" Naruto yelled back. "And what do you want now?" He continued, giving the annoying Uchiha a glare.

"Want a ride, idiot?" Naruto stared at him for a moment. It was either walking the long way home, or taking the offer and ride with the scary Sasuke… he grinned, before replying.

"Sure, and don't call me an idiot!" He ran towards the other boy, who merely rolled his eyes.

-----

"Thanks for the ride," Naruto said, closing the door of Sasuke's black car. With a car, it only took fifteen minutes to get from school to his house, but when someone had to walk it would take much longer (obviously) so Naruto was rather glad Sasuke had offered him a ride. Not that he had expected it, of course, since the boy had never shown any real interest in anyone. Sure, he hung out with a lot of people, but he never said anything to them. Actually, now that Naruto thought about it, it seemed as though those people were just standing around him for them to look cool. And to try and get one of his many fangirls.

"Hm, it was on my way," he grunted as a reply. "See you Thursday, idiot."

"I'm not an idiot you bastard!" Naruto yelled as the car drove off. He watched the black vehicle until it was out of sight, before turning to face the house of all evil. He glanced around and searched for the dreadful pink car Sakura and Ino drove and cringed as he saw it standing on the driveway. Apparently, the spawn of the devil had returned as well.

His few moments of peace were disturbed as Sakura and Ino blocked the way to his room, asking him all kinds of questions.

"Who was the guy who gave you a ride?" They both demanded, which made Naruto smirk slightly. He could rub it in their faces that he got a ride from their three year crush _and _that he had to study with him for the next couple of months. Not that _he _was glad with this little fact, but he could make the other two jealous…

If Naruto had been an evil mastermind, he would be rubbing his hands together and chuckling evilly right about now.

"Ah, I got a ride from Sasuke," he said nonchalantly, making the other two gasp in horror. They stared for a couple of moments, before Naruto continued, "Would you mind? I have homework to do." He wanted to walk past them, but Ino got a hold of his arm and pulled him back. "Hey! Don't touch me!"

"Stay away from Sasuke-kun, freak!" Ino said furiously. "We don't want to ruin our chances with him and if a rat like you even _looks _at him, we'll make your life a living hell." Naruto grunted, looking at the two girls who seemed like they wanted to kill him right there and then.

"You can't make it worse than it already is," he hissed at them, before pulling his arm back out of Ino's hard grasp and running up the stairs to his small room in the attic.

The room wasn't much, but it was his. It was his private space and therefore he locked it. He needed some privacy and he needed to rant to someone about his situation, about the Evil Duo… so, he took his cellphone and sent a text message to Sharingan- the only person he could trust and also the only person he wanted to trust.

He could also trust Kiba, of course. And then there was Shikamaru, who simply was too lazy to listen to him. And Chouji, but he was always busy eating so he probably wouldn't hear a thing he said- but Naruto knew he could trust them, even if they did hear him. They wouldn't tell.

However, Naruto found that it was much easier to talk to Sharingan than to any of those. He told Kiba about his experiences with the two horrors once in a while, but he usually said, "If you want, I can kick their asses for ya", or something similar to that, which wasn't really helpful either.

While waiting for a reply, he decided to take a shower. He had his own small bathroom as Ino and Sakura had refused to share the bathroom downstairs with him ("We'll get some disease if we wash ourselves in the same shower as him!"), so they had decided to make him his own small one. Naruto didn't complain.

After the refreshing shower, he hurried back to his bed to check up on his messages. He grinned at himself while reading.

_'Ah, hard time at home again, eh? I wish I could do something to make it better…'_

Naruto quickly sent his reply.

-----

His phone was beeping once again and his heart started to beat louder- it was him. The only one he wanted to talk to, the only one he wanted to trust. The only one he wanted.

He never gave his number to the 'fangirls' at school, though they practically begged him for it. It was simply too troublesome to do such a thing. He had once tried it, figuring it would be nice to talk to someone outside of school, but the girl kept calling him even in the middle of the night. It was scary.

He had been hesitant to give his number to a complete stranger he had only talked to once- but it was definitely worth it. He felt like he had become addicted to this person, like he needed him.

And he probably did need him.

It felt weird though- he didn't even know the guy's real name! And yet he felt like he knew the real him- no charades, no hiding behind a mask, or anything like that- it was just him. Just Kyuubi. And he was himself as well. He could easily let the barrier that he had created down whenever he spoke to this boy and be _Sasuke. _

It was only too bad that he needed to tutor Naruto, or else he would've started to send messages an hour earlier, but he figured they could catch up on lost time…

_'Don't worry about it, listening to me ranting is enough… I mean, I'm sure you have something far more interesting to do, right?'_

Sasuke grinned. He actually needed to do some homework- but it could wait.

-------

_'I can't think of anything better to do with my time actually. Now, is there anything more you wanted to rant about?'_

Naruto thought hard about this. Well, there was this thing with the Sasuke-bastard… but he didn't want to say that since Sharingan would most probably find out that the guy he had been talking about was actually the freak, also known as Naruto. He shook his head- no way, he wasn't going to let him know who he truly was.

With a soft smile one his face, he messaged back, ignoring the pounding on his door for just a few seconds.

------

The next day wasn't any better. At least, it started bad, but became better as it went along.

First of all, he forgot to set his alarm clock and woke up when he heard his stepsisters' car drive off. It figured that they wouldn't wake him up, especially since they were still jealous of him and that they couldn't stand the fact that he actually got tutored by the most popular guy in the entire school. This made Naruto grin slightly.

After he got dressed, he quickly looked if he had received a message from Sharingan, before sprinting out of the house. He would be really late this time for school- and worst of all, his first class was Geography. And that meant that he had to face the wrath of Iruka-sensei.

Naruto shuddered at this thought.

----

"Iruka-sensei!" He yelled and entered the classroom. He was completely out of breath from running the whole way and panicked. I mean, who wouldn't with a teacher like Iruka? The man was scary- really scary. Especially when one was tardy.

"Naruto?" He merely said, raising an eyebrow. Naruto had the tendency to start biting his nails right about now- Iruka never got mad immediately. He'd get mad when you tried to explain _why. _"Would you mind telling me why you are late today?" Naruto quickly scanned the classroom for his two stepsisters, who were seated near the window and were smirking at him. Clearly they wanted to have their revenge.

"I'm sorry, sensei," Naruto quickly said, seeing the vein on Iruka's forehead becoming more visible. Oh dear God, he was going to die. "Really! My alarm clock- I forgot to set it- and then I had to run all the way to school and-"

"Detention for one week!" Iruka yelled, the vein throbbing. Naruto backed up a little, sweating as he saw his life flashing- okay, maybe that's a little bit over the top, but you get the idea.

"Y-yes, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto stammered, quickly regaining himself and walking to the back of the class. He sat down next to Shikamaru, who was staring out of the window and watching the clouds. The usual lazy attitude and yet the guy always managed to get good grades- Naruto didn't understand how he managed that.

"Good, now that the disturbance is over," Iruka gave Naruto one last glance. "We can continue. As I was saying, you will be working on a project the next couple of months. You'll be working in pairs-" Naruto quickly looked at Shikamaru, hoping that they could pair up, "-and you'll have to research together and also write a complete report about it. I will hand you some sheets that will guide you in writing this paper and that will provide you the remaining information. In the meantime, please pick your partner." He nodded at his students, before taking the bunch of papers and handing them out.

Naruto was about to turn to Shikamaru to ask him if he would like to work together, but unfortunately- he had already found his partner.

"Sorry Naruto," he said, looking at him. "Choji was first." Naruto nodded, but felt rather left behind. Who was going to be his partner now? He didn't know anybody else in this class that he liked and-

"Naruto, would you like to be my partner?" A calm voice suddenly asked him. For a moment, Naruto resembled a fish as he was moving his mouth, gaping at the black-haired boy that was standing next to his desk. Neji wanted to be his partner! Was it the end of all time or something?

Apparently, he wasn't the only one who was surprised- all the girls stared at them and some even started crying.

"Well?" He said, ignoring the looks people gave him. Even Shikamaru seemed to be surprised.

"Ah, sure," Naruto quickly said, nervously.

"Good. When do you have time to research? We could go to my house," Neji continued, still ignoring the stares. Naruto thought they were beginning to get quite annoying and decided to voice his thoughts.

"Oi! Do we look like an exhibition or something? Mind your own business!" A few stared for a moment, before indeed turning around and continuing with what they were doing. Neji was rather amused at this, but hid it quite well. He let himself smile just a bit though. Naruto turned around to face the black-haired boy again, before answering his question, "I'm not sure when, perhaps Saturday?" He looked hopeful at Neji, his blue eyes almost pleading.

Saturday was horrible for him. He'd be home all day taking care of Sakura and Ino who would just shower him with all kinds of stupid chores. He really didn't want that and if he had a good excuse to get away… he'd gladly take it. Even if he did have to work with Hyuuga Neji.

"Sure," Neji replied, before turning around to walk back to his desk.

"Neji!" Naruto called after him. "I-I don't know where you live," Naruto said, hesitantly. Neji let himself smile briefly again- how can he not know where the Hyuuga mansion is? Practically everybody in Konoha knew… he loved the boy's innocence- it was rather appealing. And he wasn't one of those guys who just hung out with you because of your lineage or money- unlike most people at his school.

"I'll pick you up then," he said. Naruto merely nodded.

-----

"So, are you ready?" Sasuke walked up to Naruto and while doing so, slid his hands in his pockets. For a moment, Naruto didn't know what he was talking about, but then quickly remembered that today was Thursday, which meant that he had to be tutored once again. Crap. "Well? Let's go, idiot," Sasuke continued and walked up to his car.

"Don't call me an idiot, bastard!" Naruto yelled and followed Sasuke, who was smirking.

The ride home was not that long and the blonde had started to fidget in the passenger's seat, praying to God that _they_ (and by 'they', he means the Evil Duo) had gone to visit someone, or got ill, or died- or at least something like that. Anything to keep them away from Naruto and Sasuke.

"Are you nervous or something?" the other boy asked coolly. It had been rather annoying- over the past five minutes Naruto had been pushing the 'up' and 'down' button for the automatic windows and it was beginning to get on Sasuke's nerves. Naruto swallowed, before replying.

"Ah- uhm, well, why would I be nervous, right?" He said, giving his usual big grin.

"Right…" Sasuke replied, hesitantly. It seemed to him that the boy was nervous, but like Naruto had said- why would he be? 

Sasuke had heard bits about the blonde's home and that he lived with the two most annoying girls he had ever met, Sakura and Ino, and that he somehow was their 'servant', as they had said it. But Sasuke had never believed them really, he just let them talk about it and he never did care- but now it seemed as though Naruto was ashamed of himself and his house. _Maybe that's why he didn't want me to come._

Sasuke parked near the blonde's house and honestly didn't know what he could be embarrassed about- the house was huge. By the looks of it, way too big for only four people. But then again, if Sakura's and Ino's mother is anything like those two, they'd want to live in such a big house, if only to brag about their wealth.

"Hn," he grunted, as Naruto came out of the car and started to mutter something incomprehensible. He _was _nervous, the way his body responded to everything was very obvious to the Uchiha.

"Well," Naruto said, while fidgeting with his keys. "Here we go then." He opened the front door and Sasuke was able to take a good look inside- and he wanted to run away immediately.

_Everything _was _pink. _

The couches were pink, the chairs were pink, even the freaking _walls _were pink. Everything! Sasuke was afraid that he might've thrown up right then and there, had it not been for Naruto who quickly grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him upstairs. Sasuke in the meantime, let himself get dragged and was able to view some of the pictures hanging on the wall- all of them were of either Ino, Sakura or some slightly older woman Sasuke didn't recognise. He figured that must've been his stepmother. She looked as though she had a lot of operations on her face- she looked younger than she truly was, but it did show that she had undergone surgery.

There were none of Naruto.

"Don't worry, my room isn't pink," Naruto said reassuringly- apparently he had regained some of his confidence and opened the only door in the attic. The Uchiha merely sighed in relief when he heard that his room wasn't the awful colour and was eager to get this over with- they would definitely study at _his _house next time. Naruto opened the door and-

Oh. Dear. God.

The room had a decent size, but it was orange. His bed was blue, but the rest of his room was completely orange! Sasuke could hardly believe this- was the family mad or something?

Wait, don't answer that.

Despite the bright colour and the bed, there wasn't anything else standing there. Only one chair decorated his room and one poster of some band Sasuke had never heard of- the floor was rather messy though, with all kinds of clothing lying around and several books were lying near Naruto's bed. He apparently didn't have a lot of assets.

Naruto grinned at him, slightly nervous, but obviously was expecting some sort of a reply. "Very… orange," Sasuke managed to say and tried not to sound too mean with that. Naruto didn't take it as an offence though- he started to grin like mad.

"Yeah, it's my favourite colour!" He said, which slightly amused the Uchiha.

"Alright, let's get started then." The other boy agreed.

----

About half an hour later, a high voice could be heard from the other side of the door. Naruto looked mortified at the sound and started to become pale.

"Naru-chaaaaan!" It definitely was the voice of Sakura- it was the thing he feared most. Well, that and the voice of Ino. Sasuke merely raised an eyebrow at the boy's nickname and felt rather sorry for him.

Without knocking, the pink-haired girl entered. "Fix this skirt for me, freak, and after you're done with it, mother wants you to cook-" She blinked at the sight of Sasuke sitting on the floor of her obnoxious stepbrother. For a moment, Naruto thought that she was going to faint, but unfortunately for him, she ran to him and sat next to him. "Sasuke-kun!" she yelled, ignoring Naruto's objections. "Sasuke-kun, what are you doing with him?" She shot Naruto a short glare, before returning her attention to the black-haired boy who looked almost as pale as Naruto. "I mean, not that I mind having you in my house, but you don't have to waste your time with trash like him. Why don't I show you my room and we can leave that freak alone- I can show you my car and then we could have dinner together and-"

"Sorry," Sasuke cut her off coolly. "I'm busy tutoring Naruto and I have to leave now anyway, I don't have time for you." Sakura was stunned for a moment again, before turning to Naruto.

"You," she hissed.

"Me," Naruto replied.

"Freak! Don't be witty with me, I'll make sure mother locks you up for two days and doesn't feed you anything! What are you doing, bothering Sasuke-kun like this and-"

"He's not bothering me," Sasuke immediately said. Naruto could clearly hear the irritation in his voice. "You, however, are. You're just annoying and in my way." Both the blonde and Sakura seemed to be stunned for just a couple of seconds- especially Naruto. Sasuke was standing up for _him? _Maybe he had judged him too soon and- "What are you gaping at, you idiot?"

Maybe not.

"Anyway," Sasuke said, clapping his book together. "Naruto, I'll see you tomorrow again, we'll go to my place instead. Meet me at my locker and don't be late, idiot." He gave the blonde boy a nod, before grabbing his bag. He didn't even spare Sakura a glance as he made his way out of the room and out of the house.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** My apologies for any OOCness in this chapter- I certainly don't know if they truly are out of character here, but, well… Sasuke might be. And Itachi really is OOC, but I like him the way I make him in the fic, so nyah xD -sticks out her tongue- 

Anyway, I try my best to keep them in character, but it's not so easy with a high school fic (kudos to everyone who can do it! xD) 

**Some review replies: **

**Shannigan**: I'm glad you feel that way- I usually do have trouble with coming up with a good name and summary… and, it never works. But nyah, hope you will continue reading!

**XXanime assassinXX** : Yeah, it's pretty obvious that I don't like Sakura all that much, eh? XD I've never really liked her until the timejump in the manga, because all she did was cry about Sasuke. She's okay now I guess, but still not one of my fav's xD When I started to give the characters their 'roles' I figured Sakura was best as one of the stupid stepsisters, so I immediately put her in xD and then of course, I thought about Ino, who I dislike too… well, not so much as Sakura though xD 

**Devil Subaru Chan**: Lol, I like the way he's treating her too… -grins- serves her right, ne? XD

**Trekiael:** I know what you mean, though the glaring tends to make me laugh a lot. But I don't really like the fact that three guys are after Naruto… too troublesome for him and the others… but I like it when there's a bit of a rivalry going on (I'll try to make the glaring short XD). And yup, Sakura is a bitch here, but meh… she needs to be in order to fit the role of evil stepsister -grins again-

**Jelp: **Hehehehe… you'll see… xD

Everyone else who reviewed: THANKS! I like it when I get reviews, it makes me want to write more. **Tyranimo, Remedy for Chaos, Jenni Kunoichi, erning, chi no hana, Danya2, Gonrie and Wildbookaddict: **Thank you! It's very motivating, so I hope you'll all continue reviewing!

**Chapter 3**

They didn't talk to each other in the hallway, nor did they talk to each other during tutoring, unless it was about math. Sasuke was a closed book, while Naruto was always willing to talk. Naruto was loud and got angry quickly- Sasuke was quiet and stayed calm. Naruto always wanted to be acknowledged by others while Sasuke only wanted people to leave him alone. They were the complete opposite of each other.

Naruto didn't like him.

The blonde stared at the mirror, while slowly tracing the odd whisker marks on his cheeks with his fingertips and thinking about the black-haired boy. He didn't like him, because he was arrogant, had a stick up his ass, didn't talk to him, called him an idiot and because people loved him. Maybe the last thing bothered Naruto the most- apparently Sasuke didn't realise what he had. The blonde would give anything to be that popular, anything to make people love him.

Perhaps Naruto didn't like him because he wanted to be loved.

Sasuke on the other hand, pushed everyone away. At least, that's the way Naruto saw it. Sasuke hardly ever talked to anyone in school and no one knows anything about his parents or anyone else in his family. It was weird, to say the least.

He looked at his face, blue eyes staring right back at him. He couldn't help but think about his father whenever he looked in the mirror- people had always said he resembled him so much. But not only did his face remind the blonde of his father, but his dad had always teased him with the whisker marks Naruto had on his cheeks and, after a while, came up with a nickname for him. Kitsune.

Naruto loved the nickname and would always love it, but he didn't want anyone else to say it to him. It had been something between him and his dad. As had so many other things been, but this was a lot more special to Naruto. He didn't know why, though and he didn't care for it either.

He smiled a sad smile at the memory, before grabbing his bag and heading to school, dreading the day.

----

"Hey Naru!" Kiba called after him. School had been bad, but it was nothing compared to what Naruto had to face now- going to Sasuke's house. He shivered at the thought. "Do you want to come over to my place? My mother would like to meet you," he grinned at the blonde before continuing, "She'll make ramen for ya." Naruto gasped and was about to say 'hell yes', before remembering he couldn't. His face fell down.

"Sorry, can't. Tutoring," said the blonde, smacking one of the lockers he was passing and leaving a rather big dent in it.

"Sucks to be you," Kiba answered. "Why don't you come Monday then?" Naruto shrugged.

"Can't. Tutoring as well, but I maybe could come over afterwards," Naruto said, looking up at the slightly taller boy who grinned back at him.

"Sure thing and you could stay over if you like. Mom said so, unless you don't like dogs of course, because we've got a bunch of them at home," Naruto nodded enthusiastically- he had never even met Kiba's parents. They sounded really nice, if they would invite him so suddenly. "See you Monday then!" He waved at Naruto, before sprinting to his house. Naruto couldn't help but grin at the sight- Kiba really did resemble a dog.

Naruto felt a lot better at the prospect of sleeping over at Kiba's house.

Still having his eyes on the other boy, Naruto didn't notice a certain long, black-haired boy standing in front of him and so, he bumped into him. Yet again. "Ouch! He watch where you're go- Neji!" There stood Neji, smirking down at the blonde. Naruto thought he saw a hint of amusement in his eyes, but Neji was quite good at hiding it.

"Naruto," he said, giving him a nod. "I was wondering what time I should pick you up tomorrow."

"Oh, right!" Naruto said, enthusiastically. "Well, ah, it doesn't matter to me, actually." _As early as possible,_ Naruto thought bitterly.

"11 A.M.? Unless you like to stay in your bed long-"

"No! That time is perfect!" Naruto said quickly. Neji raised an eyebrow, before nodding. He gave Naruto a small smile and walked away, followed by Naruto's eyes. The blonde sighed and briefly wondered why Neji was so eager to meet him. _He probably just wants to get this over and done with, _a part of him thought. _But he did want to be my partner… maybe it's just some stupid prank they're playing on me. It wouldn't be the first time. _

"Are you coming or not, idiot?" A cold and deep voice asked him. Naruto looked up and saw the face of Sasuke looking at him with the usual black and empty eyes. The Uchiha frowned slightly, before walking to his car. Naruto obediently followed him, while shouting 'bastard!'. The black-haired boy smirked and ignored the comment coming from the blonde.

They didn't notice that Neji was watching them, with a hint of jealousy in his eyes.

-----

"One tip," Sasuke said out of nowhere. The ride to his house was fairly long and the boy hadn't said a word. If Naruto didn't know any better, he'd say he was nervous, since Sasuke was tapping with his thumb on the steering wheel- something he hadn't done the day before. Naruto looked up and blinked. "Don't talk to my brother too much," he continued, his eyes never leaving the road. Naruto nodded and didn't ask any questions as to why, but pondered over it the whole way to his house.

If Itachi, Sasuke had told him his name, was anything like Sasuke, Naruto figured he wouldn't exactly be talking too much anyway. But then again, Sasuke was one of a kind.

"We're here," the dark-haired boy said, while parking his car on the driveway of a tremendously huge house. "Idiot, you look like a goldfish. Come on," he smirked as he was saying this, all the while looking at the expression on the blonde's face. He really did resemble a fish- his mouth was hanging open and his eyes were as huge as dinner plates. He had _never _seen a house as big as this one.

"I'm not an idiot!"

Well, as you might have guessed, Naruto's face paled as they entered the huge house, for it looked ten times as big when you were inside. Naruto guessed that there were roughly a hundred rooms (you have to consider the fact that the blonde boy usually overreacts- this was no exception). A small smile crept up on Sasuke's face as he saw the expression the smaller boy had, before dropping his bag on the floor and walking down the hall. He didn't want Naruto to see him smile.

Seeing as said boy was afraid to get lost, he immediately followed the other, still gaping at everything. "You want something to drink? We have," Sasuke scanned the refrigerator and sighed, before closing it again. "We have… water. Itachi must've forgotten to get some groceries."

"Water's good," Naruto said absently. He wasn't really paying attention to the black-haired boy, seeing as he was staring at one of the paintings hanging on the kitchen wall. It was a rather vague one- the form in it was rather blurry, but Naruto could clearly see a man, according to his silhouette. Whoever painted it, must have like the colour purple a lot- the whole painting was based on different shades of it.

"I really like this," Naruto said. Sasuke quirked an eyebrow at this, but did not respond. Instead, he gave the blonde his glass of water and stood next to him. "I mean, it expresses a certain emotion," Naruto continued, seeing the questioning look he got from the other boy. "I think loneliness. At least, that's what I feel when I look at it."

"I made it," the black-haired boy suddenly said. He wasn't planning on telling the blonde this, but he felt a need to. He was right about the emotion- Sasuke really did feel lonely and he somehow expressed it through this painting. He was somewhat surprised about this, for no one so far had even interpreted it that way. "I didn't want to hang it up here, but Itachi insisted," he continued, sounding rather bitter. "It wasn't meant for him to see either, but my brother's like that. He wants to know every single thing that I'm doing." Naruto was about to respond, until he heard another cold voice from behind them.

"Sasuke, it's not polite to be speaking of your brother like that."

Enter Itachi. He resembled Sasuke a bit, but he seemed to be a lot more social. At least, he seemed a lot more open than Sasuke was (not that it wasn't easy to achieve, but still). His long black hair was tied in a tail, his crimson eyes scanning the young boy besides him as he walked towards them. He had a certain goth look about him- black, leather pants (A/N: Itachi…in leather pants… -drools- ) and a sleeveless black shirt was what he was wearing, with several necklaces. He also had a tongue piercing, but Naruto couldn't see that just yet.

"And it's not polite to interfere when someone has a guest," Sasuke replied, sounding rather annoyed. Itachi raised an eyebrow.

"It's also not polite to not introduce a guest," the older Uchiha said, with a mischievous grin on his face as he came closer to Naruto. He ruffled his blonde hair. "Especially one who is as cute as him." _Cute? What the- _ Naruto's eyes widened at the blunt remark and Sasuke quickly pulled him away from his annoying brother.

"And it's also not polite to harass a guest!" He spat back and glared at Itachi. Itachi glared back. Naruto became nervous and agitated. They ignored him and kept on glaring.

"Alright, we now know what's polite and what not!" the blonde said eventually, looking rather frustrated. "But geez, you don't have to glare at each other like that, it's really creeping me out here," he continued, throwing his hands in the air. "Come on, let's get this over with." Sasuke was about to protest, but couldn't as Naruto started dragging him out of the kitchen. He didn't really know where he was heading, but he really _needed _to get out of there. The Uchiha family truly was a crazy one.

Itachi eyed Naruto as he was pulling his younger brother out of the room and an amused smile spread across his face, before returning to the office where he had been working. _Interesting guy. _

-----

An hour later, Sasuke decided it was enough for one day and let Naruto out. He had to admit that Naruto wasn't the dimwit that he thought he would be and that he was rather good when he concentrated- but that was the hard part of it all. Getting him to concentrate. But once he did, said boy would be silent and would actually work seriously. Sasuke had now and then allowed himself to look at the blonde and was rather amused by the simplest things Naruto did- slightly sticking his tongue out whenever he was thinking hard, chewing on the pencil he was holding or pouting whenever he answered something incorrectly. The dark-haired boy also noticed the whisker marks the blonde had on his cheeks and they oddly reminded him of a fox. He had to admit that it was pretty cute.

"Ehm…" Naruto began hesitantly when he was standing in the doorway, holding his bag. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"You want me to give you a ride, don't you?" Naruto nodded and Sasuke could have sworn that he was blushing. He was probably embarrassed by it. "Come on then, idiot."

"I'm not an idiot, bastard!" Naruto stated loudly as he followed the other boy to his black car. He wasn't really happy to ask another ride of the young Uchiha, but he really didn't have a choice- it was a long way to his house and he didn't feel like walking at all. Besides, the sun was setting by now and he hated walking in the dark by himself. It would always creep him out- though he would never admit that to Sasuke, of course.

"You know, I understand why you told me not to talk to your brother," Naruto suddenly said in the car. Sasuke had to withhold a smile when he heard that, but Naruto saw the hint of amusement in his eyes and decided to continue, "I mean, the guy must be some sort of paedophile, talking like that to me!"

"Idiot, you're seventeen and he's twenty-two (1). I'd hardly call that paedophilia," Sasuke replied. Naruto could hear that he was holding back a smile and was wondering why Sasuke did that- as if he had some sort of barrier around him that he didn't want to lose. Naruto shrugged. Something must've happened in his childhood if it was true.

"Well, still, it is creepy," Naruto said. "And I'm not an idiot! If you really want to know, people happen to like me for my intellect," he continued, raising his nose in a smug sort of way. Sasuke snorted.

"So it would seem, look at the guy with the red make-up on his face- he sure looks like an intellectual," he replied, sarcasm unbelievably obvious.

"Apparently, you didn't see it very well. Those are actually tattoos. Secondly, he happens to know everything about dogs… not to mention how dog biscuits taste," the blonde boy grinned, thinking back on how Kiba had once told him that dog biscuits were actually good to eat once you got used to them. Naruto had merely laughed in his face at that.

This little remark however, made Sasuke smile. If only a little.

"Oh my God!" Naruto gasped, pointing at the other boy.

"What is it?" he said, trying to hide his concern- the blonde was looking as if he had seen a ghost.

"Did you just smile? Man, that was creepy." Sasuke raised an eyebrow at that- he didn't know if he should be amused or annoyed. Naruto grinned at him, but it soon faded as he saw that they had reached his house. Sasuke was a bit surprised at the disappointment he felt as well- he actually did have a nice conversation with the other boy and he was happy to continue it.

Not that he ever would admit _that, _of course.

"Ah, thanks for the ride," said Naruto, beginning to feel slightly nervous at the prospect of seeing his stepsisters and stepmother again. He was standing outside of the Uchiha's car and slammed the door shut. Sasuke pushed a button and the window rolled open, so he could say one last thing to the blonde.

"No problem, idiot," Sasuke replied and before Naruto had a chance to protest at the word 'idiot', he said, "And don't let that Sakura put you down like yesterday. You're an idiot, but you can stand up for yourself." Without waiting for a reply from Naruto, he drove off and leaving a slightly confused, yet happy Naruto.

----

"Freak! Where have you been? I'm starving, make us something to eat," Sakura said the moment Naruto came in. Said blonde looked at her and was about to comply, until he remembered what Sasuke had said to him. Ino was also looking at him with pure hatred and her eyes were clearly saying 'I totally agree with her, so go!'.

"Make it yourself," Naruto simply said. Sakura and Ino looked at each other, their eyes narrowing. "I'm not your slave!" And with that, Naruto ran up to his small attic and locked the door, somehow relieved that he had done that.

But then fear washed over him once again.

_Oh no, they'll tell Une _(2) _and then she'll do something terrible to me… Oh, why did I even listen to him? I can't believe it, I'm really in trouble now. _ Une was on vacation to Hawaii (3) for a couple of weeks so he really didn't have to fear anything just yet, but Ino and Sakura wouldn't forget. Not when they could make his life even more miserable. So it was better to apologise immediately. He was about to go downstairs to apologise, when he suddenly heard a familiar 'beep' coming from his pocket.

'_How are you today? Feeling better?' _ Naruto snorted at this when he read it. It was, of course, from Sharingan and he felt his heartbeat increase rapidly as he replied.

_'The usual… and you? Going to a friend's place tomorrow, I'm glad to get out of here for a while…' _ Naruto smiled sadly as he remembered the fact that he was still in this house. This life. The life of someone who was an utter loser- hardly any friends, no true family… he usually even wondered why he was alive.

Why _was _he?

He still hadn't found the answer. He refused to believe that he was alive because Sakura, Ino and Une needed him. He wasn't alive because his father needed him. He also was rather certain that he wasn't alive for anyone else, for that matter. At least, not yet. And he could hardly see himself being loved by someone… though he was hoping that someday, someone would sincerely love him. That someone wanted to grow old with him.

But still, the question 'why am I alive' was still roaming inside his head.

And he hated it.

----

The next day he was reluctant to get out of bed. He was looking forward to get out of the house though, but first he needed to get past Sakura and Ino, who wouldn't let him leave the house without making fun of him first. Especially after what he had said the previous day.

He had decided not to apologise for it, as the words of Sasuke kept coming back to him. And Sasuke had been right- he wasn't some pushover, he was a human too and he didn't deserve to be treated the way they had been treating him. And he wasn't going to take it all anymore.

Well, at least not as much as before.

At 11 P.M. the doorbell rang. Naruto looked up from his bed with a look of utmost terror on his face- it was already this late? Naruto quickly pulled on some clean pants and a clean shirt, before rushing downstairs to see Neji standing in the doorway, smiling slightly at the boy, who seemed rather flushed.

Neji could clearly see the blonde just came out of bed- his hair was messier than usual and he still had a drowsy look in his eyes, even though he seemed to be energetic as usual. He hadn't noticed the fact that Ino and Sakura were actually talking to him and were surprised to see that there was yet another popular guy from school at their house. Well, they weren't exactly surprised- they were more delighted.

Naruto briefly stared at them and could easily read the expression on their faces- they clearly thought Neji was coming to see _them. Heh, wouldn't they like that… _

"Naruto," Neji said, nodding. He ignored the looks he got from the two girls and greeted him. "Are you ready to go?" Naruto nodded and was about to pull on his shoes, when two familiar hands grabbed his arms. Apparently, Ino and Sakura weren't too happy to see him leave.

"_What _do you think you are doing?" They both said at the same time, gritting their teeth. Naruto stared at them calmly, before replying,

"_I _am going to work on our project with Neji," he pulled himself free from their grip as he walked towards the other boy, who had one eyebrow raised. "So, if you don't mind, we're off."

Sakura and Ino merely stared at them.

----

"Well, that was… decidedly odd," Neji finally said in the car. His car was beautiful, just as Sasuke's had been and Naruto wondered how all those guys got that rich.

"Yeah," Naruto replied- he didn't really want to continue discussing his 'family' with Neji as he didn't know what the other boy would think about him if he did tell him. He probably would ignore him or something, or decide that he didn't want to talk to him anymore… the usual thing.

"Are they your sisters?" Crap. Apparently Neji wasn't done talking about them.

"No, stepsisters," Naruto replied. He had the urge to say 'unfortunately', but managed to restrain himself from doing so. Neji quirked an eyebrow.

"You know, I think they always sit at our table. Not sure though," Naruto snickered at this- it was true, they really were always sitting with Neji and Sasuke and all the rest of the popular rich boys. "I always found them quite annoying."

"You're not the only one," Naruto said, chuckling. It earned him an amused smile from Neji in return.

----

The ride on the way to his house was spent in a comfortable silence and Naruto didn't mind it one bit. Somehow, Neji made him feel a lot more calmer than any other person he had ever met- even Sasuke didn't achieve this with him. Though he was pretty close.

"Wow," Naruto only managed to say as they stopped in front of the Hyuuga mansion. Neji smirked at the sight of Naruto, who stood there with his mouth open, just like he had done when he had seen Sasuke's house the day before. Again, the house was huge and beautiful and very welcoming. "It's almost as big as Sasuke's!" The blonde exclaimed, as they walked up to the front door. For a moment, Neji seemed to be annoyed by something, but quickly gave him a gentle smile.

"You've been to Uchiha's house?" Naruto nodded while he looked at the keys Neji was holding.

"Yeah, we went there yesterday. He's tutoring me in math."

"I'm pretty good at math myself," Neji said and opened the door, which earned him another gasp from Naruto as the house was also beautiful from the inside. "Maybe I could help you with it as well, if you'd like." Neji grinned at himself and gave him a mental pat on the back as Naruto nodded enthusiastically.

"Whoa, thanks Neji!" He said cheerfully. He had no idea why, but the boy actually seemed to _like _him- it was odd, but he was glad about it, maybe they would actually become friends. "You know, you're really nice!" Neji was about to reply, until he heard someone speaking.

"N-Naruto-kun," said a soft voice from the hallway. Naruto looked around to see where it had came from and saw a girl with black hair standing behind a table, fidgeting with her fingers while looking down.

"Hinata!" Naruto said loudly and greeted her cheerfully. He had known that she was related to Neji, so he wasn't really surprised to see her there- she must've been visiting. Hinata was in most of his classes, but she didn't really talk to anyone. He sometimes attempted to start a conversation with her, but failed miserably as the girl was too shy. "How are you doing?"

"G-good," she stammered, the blush on her cheeks growing even redder as she looked up to meet his eyes for just a moment.

"Ah, that's good," he replied, smiling.

"Come, Naruto, let's get started," Neji suddenly said and grabbed the blonde by the wrist and took him to his room, leaving Hinata alone.

----

After a couple of hours researching on Neji's laptop, he and Naruto finally had a good deal of information that was needed for their project and had also divided their work. In the end, Neji was content with all the results and a certain feeling arose as he watched the blonde fidgeting with his pencil.

"Naruto, I was thinking," the black-haired boy started and interrupted the other's concentration. "I have these concert tickets for Shinedown and, since I couldn't think of anyone else to go with me, perhaps you would like to? I mean, we could get something to eat and perhaps work on our project that afternoon and-"

"Are you kidding me!" Naruto said, throwing his hands in the air. Neji was slightly startled at this- he apparently thought Naruto didn't want to go with him, until the blonde continued, "Shinedown is my absolute favourite band- hell yeah, I want to go!" Neji smiled amusedly as the boy started to jump around the room screaming 'I'm going to Shinedown!' and was glad that he had asked him.

Something told him a certain Uchiha wouldn't be, though.

----

"Thanks for the ride Neji and are you sure you don't want any money for that ticket? I mean-"

"Don't worry about it, they were a gift from my father anyway. Now stop asking about it. I'll see you Monday, right?" Naruto smiled at him and nodded, before slamming the door of the car shut and waving him goodbye.

As he entered his house, he ignored the glares that Sakura and Ino gave him and went straight upstairs. He was far too happy to let them ruin this moment- he was actually going to a concert. With a friend. Who liked him. No, he definitely wouldn't let them ruin it and he also was in luck- his stepmother wouldn't be back next Saturday, when the concert was and therefore couldn't stop him from going.

He was jumping on his bed and was cheering when suddenly he heard the familiar 'beep' coming from his phone once again and quickly jumped off and grabbed it.

_'Kyuubi, I don't want to wait any longer. I want to meet you, I want to meet you soon.' _

Naruto stared for a full five minutes at his phone, wondering if he should do it or not.

----

**A/N: **

(1): I don't know how old Itachi really is, but in my fic he's twenty-two. So nyah. XD

(2) I couldn't find any character that would be the best to play the evil stepmother. I guess I could've taken Tsunade, but I don't know… she wouldn't really be very fitting, so I just made one up using the name of one of the characters from Gundam Wing… I really hate Lady Une there, so I guess I could make that one evil xD 

(3) I know I said in the previous chapter something about that Naruto's stepmother had said that Naruto needed to make dinner- well, just pretend she said that over the phone and everything's okay xD I wanted her to be at Hawaii at this point, but Une will enter the story pretty soon. 


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N: **_

_**Review Replies: **_

_**Yu-lin**: Yeah, I know about Itachi being a goth is cliché… but I can't see him in any other style! Mehe xD besides, it is smexxy, ne? xD_

_**Gonrie**: Don't worry about it! Neji will like Naruto, yes… but let's be honest here- Sasuke is way better in the long run! I mean, Neji only wants to please Naruto, with the concerttickets and all that, right? Being overly nice to him? Well, Sasuke will always be himself and that is better eventually xD at least, that's the way I see it anyway! So no, I won't put a lot NejiNaru in it. Just the competition for Sasuke n.n _

_**Jelp**: I know, it's a hard choice.. I like Sasuke and Neji equally, but I like the pairing SasuNaru more than NejiNaru.. hehe, and yes, Hinata likes Naruto, but she won't be playing a significant part… she'll end up with someone else though. And no, there will be no Gaara! XD I mean, Naruto is already having TWO hot guys after him… I couldn't do that to him- however will he choose? I might make Gaara into his friend though, I'd like that xD_

_**Devil** **Subaru Chan**: Hehehe… well, I'm not going to give anything away about Itachi, because that would ruin everything… but don't worry- he's not going to like Naruto, at least not in a boyfriend kind of way… he's just the annoying big brother XD and yah… you should read to find out! Ino is troublesome too, but maybe a little less than Sakura- I mean, she seems to care about more than just Sasuke! _

_**Trekiael**: Ah, well, I always want to have some sort of rivalry going on.. it would be too easy for Sasuke if there wasn't any! And don't worry, Hinata doesn't know about Naruto being gay… and I won't be putting her into the story a lot anyway xD And yeah, one of them will find out who the one they've been talking to is… but I'm not sure about how I'm going to do that… maybe I'll take your suggestion, ne? xD _

_**Baka Manuke**: Yes, I actually thought about this story when I saw that… when I saw it, I pointed at the TV and yelled 'OMG SASUNARU FIC!'… really, it happened xD anway, yeah I thought about Anko… but I couldn't see her as the evil stepmom somehow… I always imagine her more to be the creepy yet fun teacher at a high school xD _

_**White Evergreen**: Yes, yes! Ero-sennin! Ooooh, I want to put him in so badly… and don't worry, I will! I think I've written about him somewhere earlier, a little bit though… mehe, it's just a small sentence xD I love Jiraiya, so don't worry about him… hehehehe, he'll be there… probably in this chapter XD_

_**Jenni Kuniochi**: Yippy! I expect to see reviews from you EVERY chapter!... just kidding. I would like it though XD _

_**Hara Junko**: Yeah, it starts out a bit boring, doesn't it? Glad you kept on reading though! _

_**Reader-chan:** Why, thank you! I'm glad with the amount of reviews I already have though! The day after I updated chapter 3… well, I kinda looked like Naruto's imitation of a goldfish: _

_Me: -goes to ff- WTF OVER 40 REVIEWS O.O… o.o….o.o….o.o…._

_Yeah… I kept that up for about half an hour xD_

_**Hikari no Kurai**: … oh, a lot of questions xD Ehm… lets begin answering: No, not yet anyway. You'll read that in this chapter. Yeah, Naruto is… well, you'll read that pretty soon too xD… next question! Kyuubi isn't a nickname from his father, Kitsune is though… and the reason why he isn't using that is because it was something between him and his dad… sentimental kind of thing n.n No, his father left everything to his second wife, because he thought she was nice and stuff and he trusted her to take care of Naruto properly… they only keep him around for work around the house and stuff like that o.o_

_**Moar, Muchacha, Gold Silk, Iyfanatic, Fuzzy on Fire, Kichi Hasaki, Cracked Moon, Charlie911 (yes, SasuNaru and I don't know what will happen to Neji yet xD), thuyhy-thuyhy, erning, blah, Chubby-King-Chcocobo, Rathrahk, Danya2, Shannigan, prettybeka, Rikouchan: ** THANKS FOR REVIEWING! And keep on doing it! (please xD)_

--

His heart was beating rapidly inside his throat- it seemed to want to pound right through his skin. Naruto stared down at the words for the tenth time.

It wasn't like Sharingan had never insinuated to meet each other ('I wish I could see you right now', 'You're sad? You want me to come and cheer you up?' and other comments similar to that), but he had never actually _asked _him so bluntly to meet each other. It somehow felt different than when he asked him indirectly.

And Naruto didn't know what to do.

On the one hand, he could accept and they could meet. They could fall madly in love with each other and live happily ever after. Sharingan would take him away from his evil stepsisters and stepmother and they would live in a house filled with instant ramen packages. And they would have a butler.

Naruto drooled at the thought.

But then he thought about the other possibility- Sharingan could be some kind of asshole who said those things as a cruel prank and would make a fool out of him in front of the whole school. They all would laugh at him, call him a 'fag' and beat him up on a regular base. At least now he was invisible most of the time- they didn't spare him a second glance. Most of them hated him, but they didn't beat him up…

Naruto shrugged. No, he couldn't go through with it.

_But what if it's not a joke? _A voice inside his head said. There always was that possibility.

He threw his phone on the bed and decided to think about it for a while- besides, he wasn't in a hurry. They did have all the time in the world.

--

Sasuke stared down at his phone, waiting anxiously for a reply.

He didn't mean to push Kyuubi, but he wanted to meet him- especially since certain feelings arose whenever he saw a certain blonde. They hadn't been there long, but they were there… the way Naruto always smiled, no matter what happened, his incredible blue eyes and the way he pouted whenever he didn't get his way. He was cute, to say the least.

The feelings he had, or the feelings he at least started having, confused him greatly and he wanted to get rid of them. After all, Kyuubi was the only one who understood him, right? He was the only one who could ever understand him. Right?

Several hours passed and Sasuke did not receive a reply.

---

Sunday passed quickly. Naruto stayed in his room most of the time, only creeping out to get something to eat from the kitchen. He heard Sakura and Ino yelling several times at him ("Idiot! You didn't wash my clothes!" and "Mom said to clean the pool, you lazy ass!"), but he ignored them and decided to read a book to keep his mind occupied. It was a rather interesting one- even though he had to read it for his English class. The amount of time he had spent on reading, he did not know, but he luckily was able to kill some time.

Also, to get into the mood for the Shinedown concert he would be going to next Friday, he put on some music while reading. It was really enjoyable, until he tripped over several books that were lying on the ground as he was dancing and playing the air guitar. He quickly scanned his room and decided it was time for his annual cleaning ( and I do mean annual- Naruto cleaned his room once a year at the most).

Naruto had never really been a very clean person- in fact, he'd rather die than clean. It got worse, of course, after his stepmother practically forced him to clean the entire house _ every two days _so they wouldn't need a housekeeper (his stepmother was too lazy to do it herself). So, he was too tired to clean up his own room and only did so about once a year… and he usually found some disgusting things hidden behind his desk, chair or bed.

"Heh, that's where Sasuke tripped… that was funny," he grinned slightly at the memory of the usual stoic boy, who tripped over one of the many schoolbooks lying in his room. Yeah, Sasuke really had to try hard to keep his composure as Naruto kept on laughing. It had earned a smack from the boy though, but the blonde didn't mind it that much- it wasn't that hard.

Besides, the raven-haired boy looked rather… cute, when that happened.

Naruto sighed- it wasn't like he could ever have anyone like Sasuke and he didn't want someone like him either- popular. Actually, the biggest problem with Sasuke was that he was so damn popular, if it hadn't been for that… well, maybe Naruto would actually like him a bit more, instead of resenting him so much.

The Uchiha was hot- he had to acknowledge that. And he was nice… sort of. Well, he _could _be nice, if he wanted to. Like how he had told Sakura off and when he gave Naruto and even when his insane brother entered the room- Sasuke had protected him.

He was annoying though. Sasuke constantly called him an idiot, never said anything about himself or his family (with the exception of Itachi, but that was a warning… that didn't count) and was always either smirking, glaring or brooding. Naruto didn't know which one of these options was the best one.

It had also came to his attention that he hadn't thought about Sharingan that much in the past week. But Naruto simply shrugged and came with the conclusion that it was because he had a lot on his mind lately.

And the thought about Sharingan… also brought him the thought of meeting him. He still hadn't decided, because he was so scared of meeting him. Then again, it could also simply be great, to meet him and talk to him and-

A knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Naruto yelled back- he knew it couldn't be Sakura or Ino, because they had gone out this afternoon with some friends (Naruto vaguely remembered their names- Temari and TenTen. He didn't like Temari, but he knew that TenTen was a nice girl as she had helped him once with picking up his books after Sakura and Ino had deliberately pushed him on the ground, but that's a different story.), so that only left one person. Une. Naruto shuddered.

"It's Une," a cold voice replied. Naruto cringed at the reply, before he went to his door and unlocking it. His stepmother stood there, her arms crossed. Her dark brown hair was loose and her clothing was casual- a yellow skirt that didn't get past her knees with a red top, which was way too small for her and gave her a big cleavage. Naruto suspected that she was trying to hit on their next-door neighbour, who was a very rich and perverted old man (A/N: Can you guess who that is? –wink-). "So," she said and walked in without a warning. "Ino and Sakura have told me a lot of things over the phone." Naruto swallowed, but he wouldn't give her the satisfaction of making him scared. Though he was. Very.

"I'm sure they have. They always tend to be very talkative," the blonde replied, earning him a glare from his stepmother. Une took one step closer and raised her hand to cup his cheek in an almost loving manner. Naruto braced himself.

"Brat!" she spat at him, before slapping him hard in the face and grabbing him by the arms. She shook him roughly, all the while yelling and screaming things at him. It was normal for Naruto, she had been doing that for a long time now- though she seemed really mad today. "How dare you disobey my daughters?" she started shrieking. "How dare you? After all we've been doing! We took care of you, took you into our house-" Naruto was getting dizzy right about now- he never knew his stepmother could be _this _strong. She pushed him against the wall, hurting his head. A pain shot through him as she had slapped him on his face again, leaving a red mark on his cheek. "And this is what you do to repay us? Yell at my poor daughters! Make a fool out of them in front of their friends!" Naruto snorted inwardly- Sasuke was hardly their friend, the same went for Neji.

Another five minutes later, Naruto found himself lying on the floor, bruised and beaten. He looked around to see if his door was closed, before sobbing quietly. It had never been this bad.

But he wasn't crying about the pain he felt as he raised his body from the floor- no, it was because of all the things she had said to him about his father, about himself and about his life. _Maybe… maybe they're all true_.

And for the first time in his life, he truly wanted to escape everything. He had always been a very optimistic person, always looking at the bright side. But now, all the optimism had been beaten and talked out of him, leaving only sadness and loneliness.

He took his cell and walked out the door. He could easily get away- his stepmother had left the house right after she was done with him.

--

"Sasuke-chaaaaaaaan," Itachi started whining, for the tenth time in five minutes.

"No, and if you call me that ever again, I'll make sure you die a very painful that. And, if I can hold myself back, a long one."

"Aw, Sasuke, you're so mean! You know that my car is gone for repairs and-"

"Which was your own fault, because you were making out with Kisame while driving."

"That's not the point," he quickly said, before continuing his whining. "You won't let me drive your car, so I have absolutely _no _way of getting to the store, unless _you_ drive me."

" No."

"But Sasuke!"

"Walk."

"It's pouring!"

"Take an umbrella with you."

Itachi sighed- this wasn't working. Then again, it never worked, but at least it amused him for a couple of minutes. Now the real operation 'Get-Sasuke-To-Drive-Me-And-Find-Out-Some-Things-He-Would-Never-Tell-Me' would commence.

"Alright then," he said, shrugging. After a couple of seconds of watching Sasuke as he was reading one of the many books in their library, he started to talk again. "I know! I could go out to eat, but who would I take?" he raised his index finger to his chin as if thinking really hard. "Kisame is out of town until tomorrow and I went with all of my friends out for lunch yesterday." He continued to pretend to ponder about it some more- Sasuke didn't seem too interested, but Itachi would change that quickly. "Maybe I could take our little Naru-chan out for dinner! I'm sure he wouldn't mind, besides… we could later go to my house for some… intensive studying." Itachi grinned at the sight of shock in his little brother's eyes and turned on his heel, walking out of the room. "Three, two-"

"I'll drive you." _Hm, faster than expected…now for the finishing touch._

"Oh, I don't know," Itachi said, looking as if he was torn between two difficult decisions. "I actually want to go with Naru-chan, he seems like a good fu-"

"Let's go," Sasuke said, interrupting him before he could say anything more. He took his brother's ponytail in his hand and started dragging him out of the house, ignoring the screams of Itachi ('Ouch! Sasuke, I didn't know you liked it rough!') and the looks they got from the neighbours.

--

Naruto was running on the streets, not knowing where he was heading. It was raining, his blonde bangs in his face as the rain had made his messy spikes wet. His clothes were soaked, but he didn't care all that much about it- it actually felt kind of relieving to run through the rain like this.

He didn't really notice it when a car was driving past him and suddenly halting. The door slammed open, revealing someone very familiar, but Naruto's mind didn't process the information of a crimson-eyed boy standing in the rain, asking him what he was doing.

Naruto passed out, only a foot from where Itachi was standing.

--

"Has he woken up yet?"

"No."

The voices. He knew them- was he back in his house?

"What do you think happened?"

"How should I know?"

No, they were deep. They weren't from Sakura, Ino or Une. Was it…?

"Sasuke?" he croaked as he opened one of his eyes. He noticed that it was indeed Sasuke sitting beside his bed and Itachi standing behind his little brother. The bed was Sasuke's, he noticed, as the sheets were dark blue and king-sized. He passed out again, from exhaustion.

"Well… that was short," Itachi finally said, after moments of staring at the blonde boy lying in the bed. Sasuke only nodded in agreement. "I have some work to do, I trust I can leave you with Naru-chan?" he continued in a mocking tone- his little brother only glared at him as he made his way out of the room.

Sasuke took his cell out of his pocket and decided to send Kyuubi another text message- he hadn't received one and was worried. _Maybe I did move too fast for him?_ He shrugged again. It was likely he had acted too soon and had scared Kyuubi off- he wanted to apologise to him.

He had actually wanted to do this earlier, but as his brother started hovering behind him and breathing in his neck that he had to go to the store for dinner supplies, he didn't have much of a chance to actually send one. Now, he was finally alone (with the exception of the unconscious Naruto, but that didn't quite count as company), so he finally had the opportunity.

_Kyuubi, I'm sorry. Did I say something wrong? If my last message offended you in any way- just forget it, alright? Please send something back._

He read it over twice, before pressing the 'send' button, with an odd fluttering feeling in his stomach. He hoped Kyuubi would talk to him again.

Not one second later, he heard something beep in the room. Sasuke looked up and saw where the sound came from- Naruto's pants.

After they had taken Naruto to their house, they had stripped him completely, with the exception of his boxers (it still made Sasuke blush as he thought about it), as they were all completely soaked. They had, of course, noticed the bruises and other marks on his body, which were still very fresh. It wasn't a pretty sight.

Anyway, back to the problem at hand- Naruto's pants. Or what was in it. _Could it be…? _Sasuke's heart was pounding inside his throat as he reached in his pants and took out a very old cell phone. Which was still beeping. Sasuke looked at the screen: 'One message received.' With his heart thumping rapidly, he clicked on 'read' and his eyes widened as he read his own message back. On Naruto's phone. That came from Naruto's pants.

"Naruto," he whispered to himself. "Is Kyuubi?" A slight sparkle of hope was reflected in his eyes as he walked towards the bed carrying Naruto. Somehow, it all fitted- Naruto's family, the problems he has at home… _But what if Naruto only found the phone on the floor? _A part of him wondered. He quickly shrugged it off- the chance was very slim.

However, he wanted to make sure it wasn't someone else's phone, so he took the phone again and clicked on 'contacts'. He scrolled down and looked at the names and numbers. One of them was Ino, Naruto's stepsister, then came Kiba, Naruto's friend. He went further and saw Hyuuga Neji's name also (Sasuke grumbled in annoyance that the blonde had Hyuuga's number) and after that came Sakura, Naruto's other stepsister. He had seen the name 'Gaara' earlier, but he didn't recognise that name.

It was rather obvious- Naruto knew all these people. Therefore, it was Naruto's phone. How could it be anyone else's?

Sasuke sighed. Should he be relieved or disappointed? He looked at the blonde once more, at his sleeping form and recalled the thoughts he had earlier as he had watched him sleep. He had thought that Naruto was beautiful- his golden hair and the soft, inviting lips that were parted slightly as he breathed quietly. He seemed so at peace. Sasuke remembered thinking that he had wanted to see Naruto like that when he was awake- he wanted Naruto to at ease around him, to feel relaxed and safe. There was just something about the blonde he couldn't place.

Now came another problem for the boy- should he tell Naruto that he was Sharingan?

Sasuke quickly shook his head at the thought. Naruto could deny it, Naruto could hate him and his chances would be ruined. No, he couldn't tell him. _Maybe… he could fall for me._

He grinned. Yes, that was perfect! After all, almost every girl in school fell for the boy after just one glance, so why couldn't he let Naruto fall in love with him? _Naruto is different though… _Sasuke just shrugged- Uchiha's did _not _hesitate. Sasuke wanted Naruto and he would make sure that Naruto would want him.

After all, he was an Uchiha. And Uchiha's always got what they wanted.

--

Naruto groaned. He was still tired, but something had woken him up. Someone was shaking him roughly and the someone wasn't going away, or so it seemed.

"Sakura-chan, I'm coming," he mumbled. The shaking stopped for a brief second, before continuing. "No, Sakura-chan, I'll make breakfast, just lemme sleep for five minutes," he said again, getting irritated. He was about to slap away the hand that was shaking him, when he heard someone talking to him. And it wasn't Sakura.

"Oi idiot, I'm not Sakura and if you ever dare to insult me like that again, I'll cut off your head," the voice said. It sounded like…

"Sasuke?" he croaked, opening one eye. He kind of felt as if he had just experienced a déja vu (or whatever you call those things), but he quickly put away the thought and concentrated. He was lying in a bed, which was clearly Sasuke's.

"Great observation," the boy said, rolling his eyes at him. "Get dressed, we need to go."

"Wait- what? Go where? And where the hell am I?" Naruto vaguely remembered running through the streets, but after that, his mind went blank. Suddenly, he gasped and pointed an accusing finger at the Uchiha. He just raised an eyebrow. "You kidnapped me! Bastard!" He yelled. Sasuke rolled his eyes for the second time in two minutes, before replying.

"No, you idiot," he simply said. "Now get dressed, we need to go to school."

"At least tell me what happened!" the blonde yelled a little too loud- it actually hurt his own head. Sasuke just sighed and handed him his pants, shirt and socks.

"You were running on the street like the idiot you are and you collapsed in front of my brother. We drove you back to our house and you've been sleeping ever since."

"Oh," the blonde said, rubbing his neck and grinning sheepishly. He pulled on his clothes, managing to keep the blush from his face as he wondered if Sasuke had been the one to undress him. Sasuke watched him from the corner of his eyes, making sure Naruto wouldn't notice him staring at him, and smirked to himself.

Things were going to get really interesting.

--

**A/N: Finally an update! Gah, this took me so long to write T.T I apologise. Anyway, Sasuke found out! Sooner than I expected, but njah, I needed to get this thing moving XD **

**  
Hope you enjoyed it and I hope you review!**


End file.
